


Eavesdropping

by The_Urban_Author



Series: the big story moving project [3]
Category: Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Originally written in 2015, Theresa-centric, just moving this here from my old ffn account, slightly AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 18:41:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12488324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Urban_Author/pseuds/The_Urban_Author
Summary: Originally written in 2015:Theresa overhears something in Randy's closet at the end of Ball's well that friends well that she's not sure she was supposed to hear. (slightly AU, mostly canon compliant).originally posted to FFN in 2015, re-uploaded here errors and all.





	Eavesdropping

**Author's Note:**

> originally written in 2015 as a two-shot.

Theresa shook the cobwebs from her mind, she felt as if she just had some cloud on her mind forcefully sucked away. Her breath hitched at seeing that she was in complete darkness, The space she was in was small, she felt something soft brush against her hair. Instinctively her hand shot up to grab the offending object, She pulled it down, only to realize that it was just a shirt. She reached up, letting her hands explore where she couldn’t see. There were more shirts, some jackets, and pants hanging above her. ‘Am- am I in a closet?’ she thought bewildered. ‘How did I get here?’ She tried to put the pieces together in her head, but she couldn’t remember the past few hours for the life of her. She could remember feeling like she was looking for something, and that she followed someone to get what she was looking for. She wondered briefly if she had been stank’d again, and if she was now suffering the typical amnesia. ‘But how did I end up here? Last I remembered I was going home after twirl practice… I went through the park… and stopped at a water fountain…’ Her eyes widened as a realization came to her. ‘Wait, now I remember, the water looked weird. It was all glowy and green.’ After that everything went blank. her breath began to quicken and sweat dropped down her face. What if she had passed out and some creep decided to take advantage and kidnap her? She was going to scream, but it died in her throat when she heard the door outside open along with two sets of footsteps. Soon after she heard voices.

“Julian has the power balls and unless I stop him he’s going to enslave the world. Told you we should have gone to the game hole.”

The voice sounded familiar, but it was hard for the girl to tell through the door; A lower, rougher voice replied to the first one, “I said that! I wanted to go to the game hole!”

“You also wanted to join the ‘digging contest’” the first voice retorted.

“Which by the way, I won.”  
Theresa tried feeling the door to find the knob, but accidentally made more noise than she intended to. The door opened and light rushed in, making Theresa blink until her eyes adjusted. When she she looked up she was met with a delightful surprise. “Hey Randy.” She said, giving a small wave. “Oh- Theresa hey! You’re my- room- girl- never been- uh huuugh- putt” He stuttered out awkwardly, swiveling his hips. Howard nudged him in the arm, whispering  “Smooth Cunningham. Smooth.” Randy quickly collected himself and offered his hand to the purple haired girl, helping her stand up. Theresa gave a thankful but strained smile, hoping that he didn’t think she was being creepy by being in his closet. “SO, uh Theresa… I bet you are wondering why you’re in my closet.”  Randy said, eyes shifting back and forth nervously. Theresa’s smile fell and was replaced by a suspicious stare, did he have something to with why she couldn’t remember the past few hours? It wasn’t necessarily that the girl had any mistrust towards him, she’s just smart enough to know when someone is trying to lie to her. With the way Randy’s eyes are shifting around and how he was rubbing the back of his neck, he was clearly trying to buy time to come up with a convincing story. “Yeah I am wondering,”  she said, not taking her eyes off of the boys hesitant body language. “would either of you care to explain?” She put her hands on her hips and raised her brow. Theresa drew herself to her full height, staring directly into Randy’s eyes. The boy shrunk into himself, crumbling under her hard gaze. That is until Howard came to his friends rescue. 

“WWWeeeeelllllll,” he dragged the word out, “You see that storm out there?” He pushed her towards the window, sure enough there was a pretty frightening looking lightning storm going on. Theresa dropped her pose, ‘When did that happen?’ she thought confused, ‘Last thing I remember, it was perfectly sunny outside.’  She opened her mouth to say something but Howard cut her off to continue weaving his tale, “You were walkin’ outside and the you got all scared by the storm and came running to Cunningham’s front door. Being the nice-wadd that he is he let you in. But then when you came up here you tripped and hit your head right in the closet.” He finished talking with an air of confidence, as if what he just said was the absolute truth. Theresa didn’t buy it one bit, that story didn’t make up for the hours of time she lost. She struck her pose again, “And that’s the whole truth?” She asked skeptically. “The whole truth” Howard said, unphased by her stare. She turned to Randy for confirmation, her eyes daring him to lie to her. Randy stepped over to Howard’s side, his confidence seeming to boost by just being near his friend. “Yepyepthatsthetruthabsolutelyuhhuhyeah!” He said so quickly that it all sounded like one word, okay so maybe it wasn’t a total confidence boost but he still managed to lie to her. She dropped her pose once again, knowing the boys weren’t going to give her any more information. “Whatever. Look, I need to go home,” she pulled out her phone to check the battery, which was dead. “So can I use your phone to call my mom?” Randy perked up, “Yeah sure, land line’s downstairs.” He grabbed her hand, making her heart flutter a bit, ‘Whoa girl, are you annoyed or head over heels? Pick a side!’ The rational part of her mind reminded her.  
Randy brought her into the living room and showed her where the phone was before he headed back upstairs to his room. Theresa sat on the couch and dialed her mom, the phone rang twice before going to voicemail. “Hey mom, it’s me Theresa, my phone died and I ended up at a friends house, uhm, I guess if you don’t call back here I’ll just head home. Bye.” She hung up and looked around. Deciding it would be weird to just sit in someone else’s living room alone, she figured she should try to hang out with the boys. She headed up the stairs to Randy’s room but stopped when she heard them in mid-conversation. 

“Howard, what the juice was that? Did you honestly think she was gonna buy that story?” Said Randy, exasperated.

“You think you could’ve done better Cunningham? Besides, we can’t worry about Fowler right now. What we should worry about is how you totally shoobed up Ninja!” Howard emphasized the last part.

“Sshh sshh! Howard! Ix-nay on the inja-nay! What if she hears you!?” Just as Randy finished his sentence they both heard the front door slam shut as a blur of purple and yellow sped her way home.

 

Questions flooded the purple-haired girl’s mind as she lay on her bed. Her arm rested on her forehead as she tried to sort out everything she had heard the boys say. They had always seemed so unassuming, so consumed with their own world that they never appeared to have any secrets. Most people seemed to see right through them, with their constant schemes and cool guy acts. But now Theresa was questioning everything she knew about them, however little that was. The only real time she had spent with them outside of a life threatening situation was during the whole Monster Klub incident, and even that had turned into a life threatening situation. But still, even to her they seemed pretty one-dimensional, though she realised that her crush on Randy might have fooled her into thinking that he must be a deeper person. Now she wasn’t so sure if she had tricked herself or if she had inadvertently been on to something. Howard… he had called Randy Ninja. They were talking about Julian, they said he had gotten something, and from the graveness of Randy’s voice- a seriousness she had never heard from the boy- it was something important. He said Julian could use whatever it was to enslave the world. She shook her head ‘There’s no way. Julian couldn’t enslave the world, sure he may be a bit creepy sometimes- and yeah he did turn me into a monster on purpose that one time- but he wouldn’t do something like enslave the world.’ She hadn’t really seen or spoken to her old friend in a while, but she was sure of this, or at least told herself to.

It was her purple haired crush that took up most of her mind now though, and not in a lovey-dovey way, more like in a ‘Who the juice have I had a crush on all this time?’ way. Theresa remembered back in winter, when Debbie had accused Randy of being the ninja. He seemed to disprove the claim, but maybe that was a trick, like Debbie had said during Heidi’s talk show. After all, a ninja would be well trained in keeping secrets wouldn’t they? After the incident, Debbie seemed to strongly deny even remembering having the idea, did HE have something to do with it? A headache blossomed from her rushing thoughts. Theresa rubbed her temples ‘I’m thinking way too hard about this. Randy isn’t that deep. I barely know him really, so I shouldn’t jump to so many conclusions.’ Theresa looked at her clock, it was near 10:30, and she had to be up early for school tomorrow; she had spent hours awake thinking about what she ahd heard. A yawn suddenly escaped her lips as fatigue took her over. She snuggled under her sheets, her eyelids became heavy as sleep pulled her into its grasp. A final thought passed through her mind before she gave into sleep, ‘Besides, how can I really trust what i heard eavesdropping anyway?’

 

She couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before. The whole school had to be full of morons not to see it. Theresa was suspended in the air in a magic cage forged by the evil cyborg Julian, along with other students, but her attention was on the ninja. Sure everyone was watching him, he was engaged in an epic battle with the aforementioned evil cyborg, with a Sorcerer that apparently lived under the school no less. But Theresa wasn’t even watching the fight, she was watching just the Ninja. The way he moved, the way he spoke, she couldn’t even believe she didn’t recognize those sapphire eyes. Those eyes she often dreamed of getting lost in, if there was a doubt in her mind last night, it was gone now. Randy Cunningham is the Ninja. A wave of worry passed through her as she watched the Sorcerer turn on him after they defeated Evil Julian, but the fight was short lived as Howard and normal Julian emerged from a portal, along with an old man in fancy pants. Theresa wasn’t quite sure of what happened next, there were a lot of flashes of light, then suddenly she was on the ground, there was only one Julian and the old man and Sorcerer were gone.       

“Ninja! Why didn’t you tell us there was an evil Sorcerer imprisoned under the school?” asked Doug. Theresa wanted to facepalm at Doug’s whiny comment, but she had her own bone to pick with the Ninja. She stood up to confront him, but he smoke bombed away before she could. Exasperated, she blew her messed up bags out of her face with a huff. This was so not over.

 

Theresa was on the hunt. She was storming through the halls of Norrisville High, looking for a certain purple haired boy. She was headed towards his locker, knowing she would catch him for sure. She could see him around the corner, she quickened her pace. She was gearing herself up, getting pumped for confrontation, until she heard something that made her stop. She side-stepped so she was out of sight, she pressed her back up against the wall, while listening intently. 

“So… Cunningham, you defeated your biggest enemy, you moved next to the best neighbor ever, so what’s next? You can’t exactly be the ninja without- you know- someone to fight.” Said Howard.

“Well, there is still McFist, he’s probably pretty miffed that I ruined his chance at getting a superpower. Not to mention all the other weirdos in this town who either hate my guts or are just evil anyway. “ replied Randy.

“So you’re not gonna stop being the Ninja? You don’t really have anything to worry about Cunningham, why don’t you, I dunno, tell everyone you’re the ninja and win us some street cred?” 

“No- Howard… ugh.” Randy pinched the bridge of his nose, once again having to tell his friend why his scheme was terrible. “Howard, being the Ninja isn’t just about punching and kicking things, although that is bruce. It’s about protecting this school and this town. These people need a hero, and as long as I have the mask then they will. That’s the best street cred there is.” Randy finished and Howard raised a brow. “Uh, no it’s not. ‘Cause that’s imaginary street cred, I want real street cred.”  Randy rolled his eyes, “The Ninja’s identity stays secret Howard, no matter what.”

Theresa slowly peeled herself from the wall and began to walk the opposite direction, away from the boys. She couldn’t bring herself to tell them she knew. Theresa went to her own locker and leaned against it, her mind troubled. She hated lying, but this wasn’t lying right? It was just omitting the truth. But, was it fair to Randy? The baton twirler couldn’t be sure what was right anymore. She watched Randy and howard walk past her, both laughing at some joke she hadn’t heard. She wondered how he could do it, face near certain death everyday and still find a way to laugh. If it were her she’d be terrified constantly… maybe that’s what made him a hero. She remembered what he had said, being the ninja was about being someone the students of this school could look to, so they didn’t have to be scared. A smile found its way onto Theresa’s face, if he could find a way to do that, then he didn’t need to worry about her. She wanted to help him, she really did, but she knew telling him and making him have to worry about her wouldn’t do that. Steely determination shone in her eyes; she would help him another way. The students of Norrisville high could have their hero, but she was keeping this secret, for her friend.


End file.
